You turn around, and it’s the end of the day. A week…a month…a year goes by… and before you know it a decade has passed.

Enjoy every moment. Treasure every true friend. For every one of us this is certain; none of us will escape the finite time we’ve drawn.

I personally have been invigorated over the past year. Experiencing both sides of mortality in such a short window is oddly beautiful.

Abrupt endings of life…make inspired new beginnings that much more powerful. It has increased the passion in which I approach my day’s work. Extend compassion towards the few family, friends, and acquaintances I have. And just makes me want to work my ass off for every good experience I can have. In this mindset, material possessions are so trivial.

Abrupt endings of life…make inspired new beginnings that much more powerful.

Most of all, it has empowered me to love every fragile moment I share with my own small “Cotten Clan.” Make them proud. Be a man worth respecting, worth following, worth loving.

I can’t help but believe Samantha and I are dream building. What can bring true value to our lives? To our children and grandchildren? I will be truly happy in this world when I can hear the laughter of my grandchildren as we play football in the yard.

That is a moment I will truly cherish, and as they play I hope that one day…they too will learn that it’s these moments that are what life is all about.

]]>http://courtnycotten.com/time-clarity/feed/0You can work Remote!http://courtnycotten.com/you-can-work-remote/
http://courtnycotten.com/you-can-work-remote/#respondMon, 12 May 2014 13:26:03 +0000http://courtnycotten.com/?p=62Continue Reading...]]>When I tell people I work remotely from my home, the most common response I receive is: “I could NEVER work from home!”

This is proceeded by a very common barrage of excuses. It wouldn’t work for them with their wife at home. They couldn’t be stuck in the house all day. They aren’t disciplined enough. Too many distractions. Aren’t you lonely? You can’t be as productive or creative. The list goes on and on…

Being successful at working remote takes self discipline, focus, and a commitment to time management. You must be resilient to distractions. And I’ll be the first to admit that remote work is not a cake walk. It may not be suitable for everyone (Although it’s more likely it wouldn’t be suitable for your employer.)

Remote work success factors hinge on honesty, respect, and just getting shit done.

The freedom of working remotely can be empowering. But it’s also a lot of rope to hang yourself with. There are a ton of great articles out there on specific tools you can use to organize your team and help you work remotely, so I won’t do a deep dive on that. I’m going to cover some of the basic lessons that I’ve learned to make remote work, work for me.

Overcommunicate

No seriously. Did you read that? Communicating effectively is the backbone of a successful remote work environment. Distributed teams provide opportunities for misunderstandings to arise between team members. By confirming and redundantly stating decisions you can mitigate this.

A good example is our design team at Stack Exchange. Our team is distributed among France (1), Poland (1), and the Eastern USA (3). There is a large time gap from when our Euro friends complete work and receive the rest of the teams feedback. We may brainstorm ideas as a team, allow the lead designer to work on the project, and he would chat and email with key stakeholders while working through his initial design.

Once he completes a first round of comps, he can share it to Basecamp with annotations for the rest of the team to see the progression. At this point there is opportunity for the rest of the team to discuss it further via a video conference, chat, or voice call. The designer posts a summary of notes and next steps, and begins work on the next round of comps. In this way, team members and stakeholders can agree on next steps and key meeting notes. This type of repetition makes it super clear to the team at large what is being worked on.

Sharing early and often, and communicating next steps redundantly will help make sure everyone is on the same page.

We are still experiencing growing pains though. It has been interesting figuring out exactly at what stage designs should be shared. I opt for sharing as much as possible as early as you can. By formulating ideas, weeding out the bad, and sharing the good ones rapidly you can engage the team’s collective mind. It’s a balancing act. You want to share with your design team, not necessarily everyone in the company.

Take advantage of the shorthand you share with your professional peers. It just makes your work better. Collective thinking for really big product features, design initiatives, or marketing plans is absolutely crucial ~ so sharing early and often, and communicating next steps redundantly will help make sure everyone is on the same page.

Communication is a remote workers primary skill. Not everyone is good at it when they start, but it’s something that can be quickly learned.

Maintain your digital presence

While you may lack the ability to physically co-habitat with your team members, that does not mean you can’t maintain a high level of engagement over the course of your work day with them. Here are some rules I stick to:

• Make it predictable when others can reach you. (maintain a structured daily schedule, communicate schedule changes or AFK)

• Keep your calendar up to date and shared with others on the team.

• Make it easy to reach you. (Mobile chat clients, Skype, phone)

• Create a digital water-cooler. Hang out there, discuss, and share things. (A team group chat, Google Hangout or equivalent)

• Setup a Work in Progress board to visualize work and active projects. (We use Trello, and I’m slowly shifting the team to a Kanban model)

Recently I’ve been firing up our Design Team Hangout, and will keep the hangout session active the majority of the work day. That way anytime someone wants to chat with me, they can pop in and get feedback, discuss, or just chill. So far it’s been going pretty well (except for when you are blasting music, which has a tendency to startle your team members.)

Have a home office. Leave it often.

It’s been very important for me to have a home office. Somewhere I can setup all my gear, and just hunker down and get things done. Make it a place you genuinely like to be. I prefer to have a good view out the front windows of my home, which allows a lot of natural light into the room. It’s very different decor wise from any other room in our house, which is a good thing!

It’s also good though to take advantage of the freedom you have to get out of the house every once and a while. Go to your favorite bar, maybe a co-working space, or even the local gun range. Okay, maybe not everyone wants to work at a gun range. But that’t the beauty, you can literally work from wherever you can get wifi.I am guilty of probably not leaving the house enough.

Be sure to set aside time for just hanging out with your team members.

If you’re working with clients who have different locations around the country, it’s a great opportunity to get out and see the world! Our Stack Exchange office is located in New York ~ and meeting up with the team for design summits is a seriously good time. Our most recent team gathering allowed us to do work that’s harder to do over the internet: brainstorm on a whiteboard and longer-term thinking that we don’t make time for in our day-to-day. And be sure to set aside time for just hanging out. Long casual conversations over meals are good, and allow you to learn more about your team.

It’s true. Pants are optional, but I encourage them.

Yes I work from home. And yes I always wear pants. I’ve made it a habit to get up in the mornings, go to the gym, and get fully dressed for the day like I am going into the office. Maintaining a morning ritual (gym, breakfast, dress) allows me to get my day off right and motivates me to tackle the rest of my day. It’s also a good way to avoid sleeping in, or staying up too late.

So, set a morning routine to maintain consistency to your work day.

Don’t Fuck Up

Remote work success factors hinge on honesty, respect, and just getting shit done. If you’re a dishonest, disrespectful, and lazy person then of course remote work will fail for you.

If you require micro-management, tasks spoon fed your way, and an un-willingness to communicate daily with team members – then you will fail. It takes a special type of person to be an effective remote employee. Being proactive, efficient, and collaborative is rewarded when you are a remote worker.

“Although curiosity, passion, empathy are traits that user experience designers share, there is also a desire to achieve balance. We seek out a balance, most notably between logic & emotion.”

What’s the point?

This book is aimed at providing a solid foundation for planning and managing UX design projects. Unger and Chandler showcase a variety of UX design methods and processes as actionable items and practical takeaways.

How was it?

This book provides an easily digestible overview for anyone new to the UX field or looking to refine their UX process. Most beneficial for new practitioners may be the chapters related to the overarching aspects of the redesign process, such as writing proposals and creating personas. While these activities may or may not be done by the UX designer, it’s critical to begin a project with the solid understanding of where and how the design parameters were obtained.

My original expectation was that the book would cover more of what I consider to be the the core IA or UX design tasks, that actually result in client deliverables – site maps, wireframes, and prototypes. Chapters on deliverables and the various ways they are executed are included, but they serve as a brief glance into them and not necessarily a thorough walk through.

Where the book is strongest is providing external references to drive home the thoughts as you read them, rather than when you are finished. They use a water exploration metaphor to help you quickly understand the amount of time needed to invest in each reference. “Surfing”, “Snorkeling”, and “Deep Diving” are the categories used. I found this a very nice feature, as opposed to an Appendix or For Further Reading section nested in the back.

The book contains many references to books, online resources, and user experience groups and authors. The book is by no means an encyclopedia of UX techniques, guide to being a project manager, or methodology.

Who should read it?

If you are a young designer entering or contemplating entering the UX field this should be a cornerstone of your library. If you are an organization that really needs to start promoting a culture of UX at your organization this book is also for you.

“You have been brainwashed by school and by the system into believing that your job is to do your job and follow instructions. It’s not. Not anymore.”

What’s the point?

Linchpin offers that the key to success in today’s world is to cultivate your “art” – your creativity. Are You Indispensable? is the subtitle of this book, and Godin begins by challenging the reader to cease being “a faceless cog in the machinery of capitalism” and to realize the huge opportunity in the new world of work.

How was it?

At the heart of the book it is essentially a motivational speech.

Godin defines a Linchpin as individuals who can create order out of chaos, invent, connect, create and cause things to happen. This takes bravery as well as the fortitude to go against what he calls our “lizard brain” that seeks to avoid risk or threats. Here’s the problem though, that’s basically all the meat you’ll get by reading Linchpin. His words “sound good,” but there’s nothing to follow through on.
The same idea is repeated in different metaphors and stories within the text. Becoming a Linchpin has no real “map” he tells us, but the book lacked showcasing how a person can take concrete steps to bring “art” into their work. It was frustrating since this book has primarily been positioned as a self help title. I’ve always been a big fan of Godin’s blog posts, so reading this book was a bit of a disappointment.

Who should read it?

The message is great and it bears repeating. I would recommend this to people who have a hard time being self motivated or easily procrastinate. It is inspiring (albeit repetitive) and drives home the concept. Young college students and new graduates would benefit from the message.

]]>http://courtnycotten.com/linchpin/feed/0Automatic Betahttp://courtnycotten.com/automatic-beta/
http://courtnycotten.com/automatic-beta/#respondTue, 03 Sep 2013 15:37:47 +0000http://courtnycotten.com/?p=30Continue Reading...]]>Earlier this year (March), I signed up and pledged $70 for a nifty looking product by the name of Automatic. For those of you not familiar with Automatic, it is a small piece of hardware that talks to your car’s onboard computer and uses your smartphone’s GPS and data plan to upgrade your car’s capabilities. It does some handy things like monitor MPG, fuel cost and trip archiving. It also has the ability to encourage you to drive smarter, encouraging you to eliminate hard brakes, rapid acceleration and speeding.

In the last five years a handful of auto manufacturers have attempted to integrate similar technology into their new vehicles. Issues with this are that the consumer is limited to that particular vehicle, often time the data is only viewable *in* the vehicle, and most times the interfaces are clunky. Automatic aims to provide a vehicle agnostic approach to the ‘smart car’ functionality most mobile savvy users crave these days. $70 to make my archaic Jeep Wrangler a more intelligent driving machine? Yes please!

Setup

When I preordered my Automatic in March, the delivery window for iOS was May of 2013. Apparently Automatic hit production issues and delayed their delivery window to Fall. The nice thing was that they also provided pre-orders the ability to opt-in to their Beta program.

I received my Automatic this weekend, and the un-boxing was pretty straightforward. Simple packaging, no manuals or anything. From here, I easily located the Onboard Diagnostics Port (OBD) of my Jeep. It’s in clear view as soon as you open the door so no problems there. Once The Link (as Automatic calls it) is installed, download the Automatic application (v.0.9.4) from the App Store, turn on your vehicle, and sync your mobile device with The Link using a simple security PIN.

At this point, I began hitting snags. The app would not detect The Link. I tried several times turning my vehicle on and off, removing and firmly placing The Link back into the OBD port. No luck. After a half hour of attempting numerous combinations of startup sequences I was finally successful. The sequence I used to achieve this went in the following order:

– Jeep is running, iPhone is off and The Link is unplugged. Turned off my Sony Bluetooth stereo head-unit

– Plugged in The Link *firmly*

– Turned on iPhone

– Ensured Bluetooth was active on iPhone, launched Automatic app

– Initiated The Link setup

– It connected! 2 minutes for vehicle capabilities detection

Finally! I was excited to take it for a spin so I started driving around my neighborhood to initiate the Trip Capture feature. I noticed right away that it didn’t look like anything was happening, but I wasn’t sure if it was secretly working in the background. Once I returned home, sure enough, there was no trip data. At this point I was a little frustrated. I planned on sending in a support/feedback ticket, but my wife and I had plans to visit family that day and had to make a trip back to our home town so that would have to wait.

Now, this is the cool part of my experience so far with Automatic. Something unexpected. Once we arrived in Crawfordsville (which is about an hour drive for us) I checked my email and had a message directly from Automatic! They had proactively been tracking my initiation of The Link and my account on the Automatic App and saw that I was having issues. Very cool! I can only assume that the Beta process is providing valuable feedback on a number of makes/models of vehicles and my Wrangler was causing them some headaches.

Following a log out of my Automatic account, a restart of my phone, and a relaunch I was up and running. Our return trip home was tracked automatically, and I didn’t even have to wake the app or do a thing. My mobile device and The Link handled everything seamlessly, which is exactly what I hoped for. A seamless experience that leaves little work for me to do but check out that nifty driving data.

The Product

Automatic as a service and product is very interesting. By providing metrics on older, ‘dumb’ vehicles, it gives the driver the ability to improve their driving efficiency, accurately track mileage, and monitor fuel costs. It has already provided value by telling me my MPG (which I had traditionally just ballparked in my head) and I have been pleasantly surprised that it is actually 1-2 MPG higher than I estimated on average. In regards to vehicle warning messages, I’ve yet to have any experience with that.

The user experience of the application itself is very straightforward. They paid close attention to the visual design, and the micro-interactions are very intuitive (tap on a trip to expand, scroll to see list of more trips, pretty simple!) The passive nature of the application, i.e. “Always-On” makes this a dream for me. I don’t want to have to remind myself every time I enter my vehicle to launch the app and make sure everything is connected. The Link automatically detects my presence with my device and begins trip capture. I have read that there are issues with application sleep/bluetooth wakeup on iOS6 but I have yet to encounter this as well.

Overall, I am excited about being able to have metrics on my driving habits, history, and vehicle status.

]]>http://courtnycotten.com/automatic-beta/feed/0Git for Designhttp://courtnycotten.com/git-for-design/
http://courtnycotten.com/git-for-design/#respondMon, 08 Jul 2013 20:42:13 +0000http://courtnycotten.com/?p=19Continue Reading...]]>As user experience designers, we have become increasingly relied upon to deliver the building blocks for the solutions we are designing. No longer is it acceptable to simply throw things over the fence. Professionally, we all have to work together in maximizing the efficiency of the team.

At Universal Mind, we’ve been experimenting with breaking down the wall between our design & development teams. This shift in methodology has been championed by our Lead UX Technologist, Kellen Styler. The focus on leaner, more consistent delivery of assets and design resources is proving to be a huge boost to our team productivity as well as morale. In this post I will be discussing my findings and experience in dealing with Git (with SourceTree) as a UX Designer and some advantages it brings to the table. Specifically, I will be discussing an experience which has leveraged Git, Sourcetree, and BitBucket.

Why Use Git?

Version Control

Git is intended to be leveraged as a revision control system that manages changes to a set of data over time. For developers, this is usually plain text (code).

But as designers, we are working primarily with binary files (images). Binary files have some limitations in regards to tracking changes between files. While it is limited in it’s ability to show state changes between multiple commits, it is powerful due to the ability to ‘check out’ or ‘roll back’ to previous versions of your files. The designer also has the ability to make annotations and comments with each commit, which is very useful for archival purposes and project lifecycle management. Assuming a project is dormant for a long period of time, a new team of designers can start right where the other team left off with little to no on-boarding or file management. They simply download the repository and are off to the races!

Redundancy

As designers our lifeblood is working design files: Prototypes, Interaction Models, Photos, and an assortment of Photoshop, Fireworks, and Illustrator documents. If one of these becomes corrupted, or your local machine decides to die on you, or someone inadvertently wipes everything from that fancy cloud folder ~ what would you do without a backup? The beautiful thing about leveraging Git with your workflow is that there will always be a remote copy out there you can snag. Of course, it’s always recommended to have an adequate local backup solution. Coupling Git with your local Time Machine provides you with a veritable PRISM.

Coherency

Git eliminated a veritable cornucopia of file sharing and cloud sharing services that our design teams used to get project assets and files back and forth. The designers and developers know where assets should be placed and where to find the files they need. This eliminates waste in workflows (Hey man, where is that icon@2x.png file I needed?!). There is also a higher level of transparency into the speed and progress of the team on an hourly level.

Pitfalls

Potentially Intimidating Setup

Designer’s who have never opened their Terminal app may become intimidated with some of the installation. Creating repositories via Terminal can be a little more advanced than most people would probably feel comfortable with. Thankfully I was familiar with Git and terminal commands due to my time at SEP.

Keep Things Tidy

What Git & SourceTree do is allow you to manage your commits and pulls from the remote. You can exclude certain files from floating back to the remote (which will keep junk out of the mix and the master repository tidy).

Prolong HUGE Binary Files

Plan on pushing a 1GB .psd file to the remote repository? It will be really slow, or occasionally time out on you. Just remember that you can work locally on those big files, and push them at the very end of the project when you’re rolling off and want to archive all of your work. This also will make anyone attempting to pull the remote down to their machine happy that they don’t have to deal with a bloated repository.

Added Process

It’s true. Git adds more process to your workflow, but in my opinion the benefits outweigh the time spent committing. This type of version control takes discipline and may not fit every person’s individual workflow, and some of our team less involved in day to day interactions with developers and engineers have found it tedious.

Get Started!

Well, what are you waiting for? Go out and get your first repository setup and get to work!

It was a dreary, rainy April day as my father and I unloaded our mountain bikes off of the back of my Jeep Wrangler. We were preparing for our first spring DINO racing series event, and discussed how the conditions were muddy and sloppy at Town Run Trail Park. We decided it was a perfect day for a race ~ cool, muddy, and overcast. Gritty conditions that Cotten men generally excel in.

The other racers milled about, breaking away the mud caked to their tires and forming up for each weight class. As we lined up and were about to launch, Dad exclaimed, “When it’s too tough for them, it’s just right for us!”

And we were off!

The two of us cut through the trail at a rapid pace. It was a long race, and as we continued I had broke away from my father. I lost track of him the further in we got, focused on the race. My immediate reaction was that I was killing the course ~ but surely not. Dad should at least be within a quick head turn. So when I approached to lap him on my way through, I realized something was seriously wrong.

As he struggled to ride, I urged him to stop for a moment so we could figure out what was wrong. He explained that he was having severe pain in his stomach and lower back. He insisted I continue on, “One of us need to finish and you are up there near the leaders, go!”. So I did what dad said and finished the race. I quickly tracked my way back once I crossed the finish line to see where dad was. He was slowly walking his bike in, seemingly done for the day.

This isn’t the father I knew. He would never not finish a competition to completion. That is, unless something was seriously wrong.

The Diagnosis

That race day was the first day I felt sorrow and sadness for my father’s illness. We had no idea that it was anything terminal at that time, but by June, my father was diagnosed with Stage IV Biliary Cancer. They gave him a year to live.

He didn’t believe it. I didn’t believe it.

We quickly went into ‘game’ mode and were determined to beat this. Dad was young still (47), not in his 60’s or 70’s like most of the patients who were diagnosed with this. He could fight it, maybe even beat it into remission with the right doctors. And so we began our quest to track down the best doctors, treatments, and care we could find. This ultimately led us to Cancer Treatment Centers of America, with the Wisconsin location being our primary care facility. A long trek from my father’s home about 45 minutes east of Louisville, KY.

Universal Mind

As soon as I found out that my father was ill, I began looking for opportunities to both grow my career as well as be able to work remotely. It was important I have the ability and flexibility to travel with my father to his treatments. Miraculously, Francisco Inchauste, a designer I highly respected had tweeted that his company was hiring UX designers. I quickly reached out, and managed to snag a gig! I did not realize at the time how large of a blessing this would become over the course of the following year.

It’s an amazing place to work, with even more amazing people. Without their support and flexibility over the last months, I would have never had the lasting experiences with my father that I was able to enjoy. You can never get back lost time with your loved ones, and I am happy that I regret nothing during my last year with my father. I spent a large amount of time with him and it’s in large part due to the Universal Mind family.

Do you make nice Web things? We’re looking for designers/front-end coders for our UX team at @universalmind. Talk to me!

My Father’s Legacy

In our lifetime, and especially as we get older, we are often cognizant of our mortality and that moves us to the thought of “what is our legacy”? I have had the chance to meet my father’s friends & business associates. These people had the opportunity to be a part of my father’s life and I realized that dad got it. He understood what the journey was about. It was about people. In every person he met, including myself, he sought to inspire and motivate. The fact that I had such a close relationship with my dad is something I am very proud of. I feel that I had something pretty amazing.

That is the legacy we dream of. Inspiring people and having the relationship with our children that forever leaves them impacted for a lifetime. Lessons that will be passed on from father, to son, to grandson and onwards for generations.

It is not easy in the physical world to process, but I’ve come to the conclusion that there is something more beyond the here and now. While dads journey was short here, his journey eternally is so much greater. His legacy extends well beyond his 47 years of life. It has been multiplied by the family he built.

Now, the coolest gift I received, is to carry on that most powerful legacy that dad created.

There are many things my father taught me. A collection of thoughts and experiences he shared with me over the course of my lifetime. He did this knowingly, so that I might learn from mistakes he made or experiences he wished he would have partaken in. Morals, life rules, and examples that were embedded in our day to day interactions. I’d like to share with you the beauty that is my father’s legacy.

From my father, he taught me how to control my quick temper. And trust me, Cotten’s are gifted with an extremely short fuse.

In his final struggle, my father showed me how his strength of character was one of endurance and tenacity, signifying he was a man with a true Warrior’s spirit.

He embedded in me the value of being a man of integrity. To have no other perspective than that of my own mind; to always be the same man. Unchanged in sudden pain, in lingering sickness, in the loss of a family member.

He showed me that a man can combine intensity and relaxation; and told me never to be impatient in your explanations to others. Dad was observant and clearly regarded that his most important gift was his experience and skill in communicating his philosophical insights ~ something he very much trained and drilled me on to a level of mastery. We became equals in intellectual thought and found enjoyment in sparring about everything from politics to history to the best Fantasy Football draft strategy. We never did come to a conclusion on that discussion…

In my father’s later years, with his many grandchildren at hand, he took on a kindly disposition that had been previously masked by his ‘Tough Tony’ attitude. He valued a household pattern that was governed by the family patriarch, much like the Godfather. He took great joy in leading the family and being able to provide answers when no one else knew what to do. He was quick to point out that “The Strength of a Family, like the strength of an army, is in it’s loyalty to each other”.

Dad always had a heightened sense of concern for those friends he had adopted as family; Grant, Jim, Scott in his early years, and as his journey continued friends like Matt, Sandi, Arty, Jacquelyn, Doris, Charlie and many others. He went out of his way to make and keep these friends close, and enjoy and cherish their company and conversation. This is something I very much have adopted into my own life and live strongly by. Family is who you accept and work to keep in your life, not tied by blood or surname.

Dad’s nature was to have an agreeable manner with all, so that the pleasure of his conversation was greater than any form of flattery. His very presence brought him the highest respect from those around him. Dad taught us all a love of family, love of truth, and a love of plain speech. He was confident in the affection of his friends, and he was frank with those who met his strong disapproval. He openly stated his likes and dislikes, so that his friends and family did not need to guess his wishes. He inspired trust in everyone ~ that he meant what he said and was well-intentioned in all that he did (Even if the outcome wasn’t always how he preferred or planned).

You have a prescribed a limit to your time – if you do not use it to clear away your clouds, it will be gone, and you will be gone, and the opportunity will never return.

He had a ready and open ear for anyone, he rewarded people in an un-biased manner, always giving everyone their due. Even when the sickness got bad in our last week together, he was quick to be sure KC got her fair pay in our imaginary Arni’s pizza venture.

My father taught me that the key to success in life is SELF-mastery, being able to control your own mind and disposition. It is a powerful trait.

He shared with me that it was important to become immune to any passing whim, maintain good cheer in all circumstances; including terminal illness. Maintain a nice balance of character, both stern and dignified but always stow away a pleasant humor. Be tenacious in all your pursuits, in an attempt to achieve victory in all things. He defined this the “Cotten Way.”

In the final days of my dad’s life, he expressed to me how proud he was of me. We discussed how we were blessed with a family whose character spurred us to care for ourselves, and whose respect and affection were likewise a source of joy for the two of us. We discussed the Word of God, and how we are all made up of flesh, breath, and a directing mind.

He stressed to me how *many* times he was given a period of grace by the Lord and had not used it to end petty feuds or arguments. He attributed this to youthful pride and stubborn temperament. Bury the hatchet when you’re given the opportunity.

Saying Goodbye

It is important for everyone reading this to understand the universe of which you are part of. You have a prescribed a limit to your time – if you do not use it to clear away your clouds, it will be gone, and you will be gone, and the opportunity will never return. This is the face of mortality, shared to me by the wisdom of my father who faced that very reality before him. He had a clarity only the dying can truly understand.

You may leave this life at any moment: have this possibility in your mind in all that you do or say or think. Even if you were destined to live for three thousand years, or ten times that long, remember that no one loses any life other than the one he LIVES. Both the longest-lived and the earliest to die suffer the same loss. Make your time here count. I have no doubt that my father certainly made his time here count.

In his final struggle, my father showed me how his strength of character was one of endurance and tenacity, signifying he was a man with a true Warrior’s spirit. I know that this void in my heart will end up being like a scar on a tree, which time, instead of healing, will only help to enlarge. I don’t see how I will ever be the same again. But I don’t see any better gift for my father to leave me than his legacy and the memories of great times. His LEGACY is one that will continue for generations to come.

Thank you Dad for every single thing you taught me. You were victorious in this life.

]]>http://courtnycotten.com/father/feed/0The Force Multiplierhttp://courtnycotten.com/the-force-multiplier/
http://courtnycotten.com/the-force-multiplier/#respondSat, 09 Feb 2013 19:11:15 +0000http://courtnycotten.com/?p=18Continue Reading...]]>Force multiplication is a capability that, when added to and employed by a combat force, significantly increases the combat potential of that force and thus enhances the probability of successful mission accomplishment.

I recently saw an interesting post on my alma mater’s Facebook page where current students and alumni can discuss the state of the design industry. Folks can share their real world experiences with students who are entering the workforce. One of my former professors posted:

“I think a balanced quality for any designer is to be smart and lazy at the same time. Smart to identify what really needs to be done, and lazy to find the simplest and easiest way to do them. What do you think?”

My Journey

This particular post inspired me to reflect on my own journey as a design professional.

One of the interesting things, being only a few years removed from the rigors of college curriculum myself, is seeing the shift in my focus for improvement. While in college, it was easy to get wrapped up in learning tools to do the job as well as proper methodology and processes to achieve a solution. Over the course of my years in the workforce though, my focus has shifted from that of learning more commodity based skills (run photoshop, direct a brainstorm session, produce design concepts) to learning how to optimize my workflow, manage my time, and make myself as efficient as possible.

This allows me to have more time to focus my efforts on doing the things I love, learning new tools & methods, or generally having more down time. Sharpening your workflow provides you with what I consider a reward more valuable than monetary value: Time.

One hour of my current time equates to around three hours of what I used to use when I was working in college. How do you know that Courtny, you may ask?

During college I had the opportunity to intern at Software Engineering Professionals. There I had the pleasure of meeting Anthony Panozzo, who introduced me to the pomodoro technique and Chris Shinkle who is a Lean & Kanban evangelist. Anthony provided me knowledge I could leverage to maintain consistency and structure in my micro workflow. Chris introduced me to utilizing Kanban to separate my tasks into relatively equal sized ‘tickets’ that I could pull as I worked. This helped to limit my work in progress, and combined with the Pomodoro technique enhanced my workflow greatly. Ultimately, this reduced churn and ensured I would complete tasks, not just begin something and have many MANY projects in progress; none of which came to an end.

It is my opinion that assessing the efficiency of an individual is something that is commonly overlooked in the design community.

This revolutionized the way I worked. I felt liberated. I now had insight into how long it took me to complete tasks, how I could make my twenty five minute segments more efficient, and how I could become a true force multiplier by simply increasing my efficiency as a designer.

Becoming a Force Multiplier

It is my opinion that assessing the efficiency of an individual is something that is commonly overlooked in the design community. It is generally only mentioned in passing in traditional educational institutions. Designers are often thought of as being free-thinking, “when the inspiration hits” individuals. But becoming more pragmatic regarding how and when you do your work can make you an extremely valuable member of a team.

Other colleagues will have their own schedules, deadlines, and needs. It is your job as a professional to ensure they have what they need to be successful, and it is important you have an understanding of your own workflow so you can estimate appropriately and deliver on time. Your personal reputation as a worker is very important. I like to be known as a man of my word and not let people down. I also don’t enjoy staying up until all hours of the evening trying to hit a deadline.

An excellent way to identify and optimize your workflow is to leverage the Boyd Loop, consisting of these steps:

Observe: Analyze your workflow, pinpoint inefficiencies.

Orient: Place your new observations into a context with your old work processes.

Decide: Select the next action based on the combined observation and knowledge you gained.

Act: Carry out the selected improvement regularly.

Real World Example: Naming all your layers in a design document.

Context 1 ~
You are the only member on the project, delivering final assets to developers for the life of the project. There is no added value in you spending an extra 4 seconds naming every single layer in that design document.

One project I recently worked on had a fireworks document that had thirty five pages in it and averaged ninety individual elements per page. Sparing the math, this equaled an additional 3 hours I would have spent naming each of those elements (and sometimes, figuring out what something should be named is a task in and of itself.) Name what you need to keep your own context, but avoid spending unnecessary time doing this.

Context 2 ~
You are working with a distributed team and multiple developers and designers are contributing on your project. Your three hours of careful naming standards may multiple the effectiveness of your team members, as they won’t have to search items and can clearly identify what they need. You have effectively ‘force multiplied’.

Closing

Time is valuable. You don’t have an unlimited amount to expend on a project. I personally believe that as a professional designer it is of critical importance you maintain a pragmatic approach to how you create and provide solutions. Time and again you will be able to deliver consistently great results, be a great team member, and attain your goal of becoming an effective Force Multiplier.

]]>http://courtnycotten.com/the-force-multiplier/feed/0Hello Dear Worldhttp://courtnycotten.com/hello-world/
http://courtnycotten.com/hello-world/#commentsSat, 15 Jan 2011 06:54:55 +0000http://courtnycotten.com/?p=1Continue Reading...]]>This has been a long time coming.

I finally had the time to refresh my personal domain, the culmination of three years of thought and reflection on what I needed to showcase on the web. I initially began this journey assuming I’d need all the glorious components of a standard designer website; custom portfolio, a miraculous about page, and some catchy homepage tagline. Oh, and throw on some widgets like a twitter feed and integrate some parallax and it would be ballin’.

But through all of my design revisions this never felt right. It never felt like me.

The majority of my professional career information can be found on LinkedIn, or the custom made resume I submitted to Universal Mind. My work is viewable on Dribbble, and if I need to showcase a project I would take the time to art direct and craft it to be a unique experience for the project, much like Fi does on their project showcases.

This begged the question, “What should courtnycotten.com have on it? Is it a portfolio? Is it an about page?” ~ the answer was neither of these.

The Solution

My personal website is a reflection of my thought processes, an archive of my professional and personal journey through life.

I am lucky enough to work at a company that values individuals whose lifestyles are geared toward the constant pursuit of excellence in design, communication, and technology. It will be my goal to share my thoughts and reflections on those people, places, and things that shape my cognitive thought. I will also take time to document the experiences in my life that help define me, or explore issues or projects that I find genuinely interesting.